All right, we're going to be
looking at that passage that Brother Ron just read in Micah
chapter 6, beginning at verse 9. And the title of the message
is The Rod of God's Judgment. The Rod of God's Judgment. But
I want you to turn over, before I get into Micah 6, turn to the
book of Job, chapter 15. I mention this to the men in
the study. The verse that I was looking for, I thought was in
the Psalms, but I found out when I looked in the concordance,
it's in Job 15. The reason I want to start with this is it's really
appropriate to the message tonight, especially when the prophet Micah
sets forth to the people of Judah and Jerusalem about how they
are measuring things the things of salvation, the things of the
Lord, the things of spiritual life and acceptance by false
balances, a false weight, a false measurement. And I thought about
that in the context of this message. You know last week I was preaching
in Ruston, Louisiana, and incidentally, I do bring you greetings from
Pastor Richard Wormack and the brethren there at Grace Baptist
Church. We had just a great time of fellowship and worship. I
preached five times over the weekend and just had a real good
time preaching. They're just so receptive to
the message. And you know Richard. I don't
think, there's some of you that may have been out there and met
some of his people. There's a small group of people
that are just precious to us and we just had a good time. And when I get out there, you
know Ruston is a college town. That's where Louisiana Tech is.
And we'll travel around the town and just look at different things. One of the things I'm always
intrigued about, and I know some of you all see this too, because
you'll go around our town, our city, or other cities, and you'll
see the marquees on signs outside of churches or religious organizations. And of course, some of them just,
I don't know where people are coming, and I'm not just saying
this to be critical or mean now. Some of them I like, I mean,
especially when they use scripture, that's why Brother Ronnie put
scripture on ours. And that's the way I think it
should be, just put scripture there, the word of God. But you
know how people like their sayings and little quaint sayings, you
know, I've often said, I call it bumper sticker religion. You
know, you wear it on your sleeve, your bumper sticker, and Richard
and I, we were riding around town there, and outside of a
of a church. They had it on this sign, and
here's what they said. It said, Jesus believes in you. And this passage of scripture
popped into my head, and I couldn't remember where it was, but it's
in Job 15. Look at Job 15. Look at verse
14. It starts out, in this section of it, it's asking this question. This is a man named Eliphaz,
the Temanite, one of Job's friends, and they're discussing this issue
of how a sinner can be clean in God's sight. And when it comes
to that issue, you don't use a false measurement or a false
balance, because if you do, that's deadly, isn't it? And he says,
what is man that he should be clean? What's he talking about? He's talking about sin. Talking
about sin. That's what we are. We're sinners.
We're born in sin. And that means we're born dead
in trespasses and sins. filthy in the sight of God, and
he says, and he which is born of a woman, that he should be
righteous. How can we call a man that is born of woman, born of
Adam, born dead in trespass, how can that person be declared
righteous? And of course, that's the issue
of the gospel, isn't it? That's the question of questions
right there. Whenever you hear the gospel,
that question should be answered. And if that question is not answered,
you haven't really heard the gospel. Because that's the issue. Well, look at verse 15. Now,
keep in mind what I told you I saw. Jesus believes in you. It says, Behold, he, that is
God, putteth no trust in his saints. Even God, he doesn't
even believe in his saints. Who are his saints? Sinners saved
by grace. You see, the issue here in salvation
is not God believing in you or believing, it's us believing
in him. And that's not just splitting hairs, you see. And I remember
Brother Mayhem one time preached a message and he was talking
about false religion. He said, every attempt at false
religion in some way is an attempt to bring God down and bring man
up. And when you bring God down,
bring him down on our level, and you bring man up, I'll tell
you what you're gonna do. You're gonna draw people. Because
that's what the natural man wants to hear. The only way that God's
saints are going to be drawn to Him is as we lift up Christ
and exalt Him and take our place as sinful men and women who have
no worth or value in and of ourselves except by the grace of God in
Christ. He goes on, Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints,
yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much more abominable
and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. Think about
that. Now with that in mind, go over
to Micah chapter 6. That's the issue here. He talked
about what God required there in verse 8. Look at it. He says,
God hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the
Lord require thee? To do justly. That's to do right
in the sight of God, in our dealings with God. Yes! Yes, we're to
do right. We're to deal justly. in our
dealings with each other, with men. You men who are in business,
you're to treat people right. Scripture says that. But what
he's talking about here is how do you deal justly before God,
with God, and in your relationship with God. Well, there's only
one way, and that's to come to Him taking sides with God against
ourselves, saying, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
who would stand? I'm a sinner. I need mercy. I'm in need of a righteousness
I can't produce. Don't have one. Can't produce
one. Where am I going to find it?
In Christ. In Christ. He says to love mercy. I'll tell you, if you ever see
yourself as you really are in God's sight, you'll love mercy.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief, to walk humbly with thy God. That's to submit. to Christ. And so he says here in verse
9, now that's what God requires, always the requirement of God's
law, never changes. Finds its fulfillment in a life
of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the very embodiment of
all that God requires in justice and mercy and humility for a
sinner to be saved and preserved and glorified eternally. Here
Micah's preaching to the nation Judah, the city of Jerusalem.
The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, he says there in verse
9. Judah's life was characterized and full of opposites, characterized
by wickedness in every way, in their religion, in their violence,
in their cheating, in their deceit, their idolatry. And this prophet,
preaching the word of God, sought to bring them into harmony with
the truth that they had been given through Moses and the law
and the others who've written the word of God. And since Judah
had turned away from the Lord and is in the covenant with the
Lord, then she must suffer the curses and the punishments of
that broken covenant. That's why there was no eternal
salvation in that old covenant law. That's why there was no
righteousness established and given in that old covenant law.
That's why there was no forgiveness of sins in that old covenant
law. The blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin. You see,
that's why there's no eternal salvation in that. They're sinners
and so are we. And that's why our eternal salvation
is in another covenant. wherein we don't have to suffer
the curses and legal punishments of our sin. Why? Because we're
better than them? No, sir. Because of Christ and
Him crucified and risen again. Because of the grace of God and
the mercy of God. And that's the only reason. Isn't
that right? No other reason. Now, there are
chastisements even towards us. But those aren't legal punishments
and legal payments. No, sir. Christ paid it all.
Jesus paid it all. We sing, all the debt I owe.
The original writer said, all to him I owe. Either way, he
paid it all. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. The fundamental lesson of this
prophecy would be simply the accountability of those who are
bound to the Lord by covenant. We're accountable. It's a great
blessing to be part of the covenant that God has made with men in
Christ. Israel was part of the covenant
of Moses. It was a temporal covenant, temporary covenant, but they
failed. But don't look down on them and
get proud all of a sudden. So would we. So would we. We fail all the time, don't we? Under any conditional covenant
towards sinners, we fail. But we as believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ are part of the new covenant, an unconditional
covenant towards us. All conditions were laid upon
Christ. He fulfilled them. He met them.
Every requirement, every stipulation. But we're still accountable to
God to use all the means provided to be living proofs and evidences
of that covenant relationship. And so we reap what we sow. What are we going to sow? Let's
sow the grace of God. So the grace of God in Christ. Here are three statements he
starts off with. Listen to this. He says, the Lord's voice crieth
unto the city. What's he saying there? He's
saying this is God's word to Jerusalem. What I'm about to
tell you is the word of God, not the word of men, not the
opinion of men. It's not just something you write
on a bumper sticker. This is God's word. This has
authority. This has, in the hands of the
Holy Spirit, power of conviction. Power to bring a sinner to see
himself as he really is. Power to bring a sinner to Christ.
So this is God's Word. Here's the second statement.
Listen to what he says here. Read it in your Bibles. It says,
"...and the man of wisdom shall see thy name." Now, in the original,
it would read like this, and wisdom shall see thy name. In
other words, if you see his name, and that word see there means
to understand and know what this is all about. It's not just a
vision. It's not just a sight. It's not
just some kind of apparition. It's like when Christ told Nicodemus,
except you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.
Understand it savingly. And so what he's saying, it is
wisdom itself to see His name. And the one who is wise in the
things of the Lord will see and understand what Micah's prophesying
about, what he's preaching about. Ultimately, it's referring to
a born-again person. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. But wisdom will see this. Where
are you going to find wisdom? Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 1
says it plainly. that to those who are called,
and that calling is part of the new birth, being born again,
it's regeneration and conversion, the calling, the powerful, invincible,
irresistible call of the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel,
to those who are called, Christ and Him crucified, both the power
of God and the what? The wisdom of God. This C here also means to fear. One who sees the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, he fears God. Not with a legal
fear, not with a running scared fear, as one old preacher said,
but with a respectful reverence of God. Look at Hebrews chapter
3 with me. Turn over there, I want to show
you this. And this fear, this seeing which is fearing God means
to believe God. I want you to look at the last
verse of Hebrews chapter 3. He'd been talking about the children
of Israel in the wilderness and the fact that they didn't enter
into the promised land, the first generation that came upon the
promised land. Well, why couldn't they enter
in? Look at verse 19 of Hebrews 3. He says, well, we see that
they could not enter in because of unbelief. Now, why does a
person not believe? Well, it's because he doesn't
see. You know, Christ told the disciples, he said, blessed are
your eyes for they see, blessed are your ears for they hear.
In other words, if you see this, if you really see it and you
really hear it, you're going to believe it. And if you don't
believe it, you haven't really seen it or really heard it. You
may hear it audibly. You may hear the voice, but you
don't believe it. Well, look at verse one of chapter
four. He said, let us therefore fear. lest a promise be left
us of entering into his rest." Now that's referring back to
the promised land was a type of an eternal rest. What is that
eternal rest? It's the rest that God's people
take and have and lay hold of and enjoy and enter by believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ who is our rest. He's our Sabbath.
We rest in Him. We rest in his finished work.
That's why the scripture says after he finished the work, he
sat down, he drank damnation dry, he made an end of sin, he
brought in everlasting righteousness that enables God to be just and
justifier. And so when we believe in him
through this fear, this worship, this respect, seeing and knowing
the glory of God, we rest in Christ. So he says, let us therefore
fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. What was the problem? They didn't see it. They didn't
believe it. He says in verse three, for we
which have believed do enter into rest. We have a Sabbath. His name is Christ, the crucified
Christ, the risen Christ, the Lord our righteousness. We rest
in him for all forgiveness by his blood. We rest in him for
all righteousness to keep us accepted before God. We're justified
in him. We rest in him for all blessedness,
all glory. And he says, We enter into rest
as he said as I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter
into my rest Although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world I look back at Micah The man of wisdom will fear God's
name godly fear brings faith faith in Christ and Repentance
of dead works you see you're if you're trying to work your
way into God's favor If you're trying to establish a righteousness
of your own, you haven't entered into his rest. You don't believe
he finished the work. That's the problem with false
religion today that comes in the name of Christianity. They
all talk about, well, Christ did it all, but you've got to
do this and do that in order to make his work effectual or
to keep yourself saved or whatever. You're not, you haven't entered
into that rest, you haven't seen it. That's what Mike is saying.
The wise man shall see thy name and his name is his glory. His
name is what identifies him and distinguish him. Here's the third
statement in verse nine. He says, hear ye the rod and
who hath appointed it. Now that's where I got the title
of the message. Hear the rod, the rod of God's judgment and
who hath appointed it. Who did that? God did. This wasn't
some preacher bringing down hellfire and brimstone on people. This
is the appointment of God. This is the judgment of God.
Behold the judgments of God against sin. And God himself who has
appointed the judgment against sin. And God who must punish
sin. And God who always judges according
to truth. And so what he does in the next
three verses, he sets forth their crimes. Now why is this judgment
coming down? Hear this rod of judgment. well
listen to what he says look at verse ten he says are there yet
the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked and the
scant measure that is abominable that is a that's a weak measure
or a lean measure it's not a right measure it's not a just measure
he says in verse eleven shall I count them pure with the wicked
balances the scales and with the bag of deceitful weights
to be like a merchant man who is robbing his customers like
the proverbial butcher who keeps his thumb on the scale in order
to get more money for less product. That's what the analogy is. He
says in verse 12, for the rich men thereof are full of violence,
they take it by force is what that means, and the inhabitants
thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitfulness
in their mouth." Now there's their crimes. He sets forth their
crimes. Now listen to me very carefully here. What Micah describes
there certainly would apply to anyone in any walk of life, in
any realm of life, who is trying to enrich themselves by dishonest
trade practices. If you see a merchant who's cheating
people, In order to get rich, this would apply to them. That
would apply. And that was going on in Jerusalem.
It was going on in Israel. That was a problem. Also, also,
more than adequately describes something else. And this is where
I brought out this morning in this morning's message about
walking after the flesh. If we're going to learn to think
biblically, if we're going to learn to think like Christ, you
know, 1 Corinthians 2 there says we have the mind of Christ. So
we need to learn to think like him. We need to go to his word. If we're going to learn to think
biblically, we have to see that this also, and here's a problem
in Jerusalem, it was a problem in Israel and Judah, it more
than adequately describes the deception of false, self-righteous,
works religion. Now the Bible is like that. And
you've got to learn to read it that way, because that's what
it's talking about. Think about it. Think about it. What was
the first sin? The very first sin that was committed? You can describe it in a lot
of different ways. You know, we're talking about
Adam. The Bible says, by one man, sin entered into the world,
and death by sin. What did Adam do? He didn't cheat
anybody out of his money. He didn't go get drunk. He didn't
lead anybody to the drug dens or anything like that. What did
he do? You know how it started out?
He did not believe God. Unbelief. That was Adam's sin. What did Adam do? He disbelieved
God. He believed a lie. Satan told
a lie. Adam believed it. Satan used
deception. He said, half God said. Half
God said. God said, you shall surely die.
Satan said what? Thou shalt not surely die. Adam
believed Satan. Took sides with Satan against
God. And the issue of sin has been set forth from that time
on. Think about this. Think about
Cain and Abel. What was Cain's sin that left
him without hope? What did he do? He brought an
offering unto the Lord. What kind of offering did he
bring? He brought the works of his hands. That's wicked in the
sight of God. Now we can talk about all kinds
of sinful practices. We can talk about all kinds of
immorality and we're against it. We preach against it. We
don't promote it. Grace does not promote lasciviousness. Grace does not promote illicit
behavior. It does not. Anybody who uses
grace for those purposes is a liar. and they don't believe grace.
Now that's so. Anybody who says it doesn't matter
what I do, how I think, what I... If anybody says that and
uses grace, God's grace, as an excuse, they're lying. But when
we read passages like that, this prophet, what he's ultimately
talking about is how sinners approach God and count themselves
saved and acceptable and blessed of God. And what he's saying
here is this, there are yet treasures of wickedness in the house of
the wicked. That's like a false church. Like Laodicea. who considers
themselves rich in God's blessings, but yet it's the house of wickedness
because they preach a false gospel. They use a scant measure that
is abominable. What is the measure of salvation? What is the measure of righteousness?
Christ is. God has appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead. Look at Romans chapter 2. This
is what Micah's talking about. This is the issue that men and
women by nature do not see and whereby it shows that we by nature
don't fear God. Look at verse 1 of Romans chapter
2. Listen to the language here. Paul had talked about the immorality
of the Gentiles in Romans chapter one and how Gentiles deserve
damnation and death and hell. And a Jew, a self-righteous,
unbelieving Jew would listen to that and they would cheer
him on, say, go get them, Paul. Tell them what they need to hear.
Those dirty, rotten Gentiles. Those immoral, fleshly, idolatrous
Gentiles, go after them, Paul, we're on your side. But then
look at verse 1 of chapter 2. He says, therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. Do you look at them
and say they're sinners and they deserve damnation? He says, for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the
same things. What does he mean there? He means
you're a sinner too. You know, if you ever look at
any one person and say, that person deserves to go to hell
because they're sinners. You know what you've just done?
You've just condemned yourself. Why? You're a sinner too. I'm a sinner too. Look at verse
two. You're using a scant measure
there. It's a measure that makes them
look bad and makes you look good. That's a scant measure. And when
you go into your house of worship and consider yourself safe, what
are you doing? You're bringing treasures, wicked treasures,
into the house of wickedness. He says in verse 2, but we are
sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against
them which commit such things. God doesn't use a scant measure.
He uses truth. He tells it like it is. He says
in verse 3, And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them
which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgments of God? You think you're going to be
any better off based on your works, based on your efforts?
Look back at Micah 6. That's what he's saying. Verse
11, Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances? Am I going
to count myself pure? Am I friends pure with wicked
balances, with wicked measure? You know, that gets at the heart
of sin there because you've heard me tell you about the word iniquity. That's what that's about. That
word iniquity means things are out of balance. And you can't
balance it out with your works. It's inequitable. It's not equal. It doesn't measure up. We miss
the mark. That's the most common word for
sin, means we miss the mark. We look at somebody and we say,
well, I know that person's lost or I know that person deserves
hell because they missed the mark. Well, do I think I've hit
the mark? With my religion? With my works? With my efforts?
Is that what I think? I missed the mark too. You missed
the mark. What is the mark? Perfect holiness. Perfect satisfaction of God's
law and justice. It's like a fella down in Georgia
told me one time, he said, well, nobody can do that. And I said,
that's right. That's why salvation is by grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by works. So the moment anybody
counts themselves saved based on anything but the blood and
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, what are they doing?
They're using a wicked balance. They're dealing with the bag
of deceitful weights. They're deceived. And verse 12
says that the rich men, whether it's in money or in salvation,
and that's what Micah's talking about, salvation. They're full
of violence. They'll take it by force. You're
not going to tell me that I'm not saved. and the inhabitants
there have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitfulness." You
see, the Bible's like that. It forbids all evil, especially
the evil of false religion, false self-righteous works religion.
But you know, men, they read passages like this and they want
to restrict it to their business practices because, you know,
not all evil men make this their habit in their business practices.
And therefore, they can say, well, I don't do that. That's
not my problem. That's not describing me. You
see, their evil is seen in thinking that this recommends them to
God for salvation and for righteousness. Because, my friend, anything
but Christ is an evil, false, wicked balance. Well, look at
the last verses here. Look at verse 13. He sets forth
the punishment that God gives for their crimes. Listen, and
listen to this now. This is another description of
false religion. He says in verse 13, he says,
therefore also will I make thee sick and smiting thee and making
thee desolate because of thy sins. Now there's the problem.
Why is all this coming about? It's the sins of the people who
are in the covenant with the Lord God. That's the basis of
this devastation and punishment that follows. You see, without
a true balance of things that can only be seen and understood
and received in Christ, What's going to happen? Sin will make
an end of us. Without Christ, we're nothing
but sin. Without Christ, we deserve nothing
but punishment and death and hell. That's what he's saying.
We don't have righteousness without Christ because He is the only
righteousness that a sinner can have. His righteousness imputed.
We don't have forgiveness without Christ because it's by His blood
alone. His righteousness and His blood
is the only thing that will balance out this scale. Make all things
equal in the sight of God according to His law and justice. We don't
have any eternal blessings without Christ. We may receive some good
things, but ultimately they'll be our downfall without Christ. You see what kind of shape we're
in? And that's what he's saying here. The sin problem is not
taken care of. Your false balances, the treasures
of your wickedness, your bag of deceitful waste, they will
not take care of the sin problem. They will not wash away your
sins. They will not put them away. Because nothing can do
that but the blood of Jesus Christ. So he says in verse 14, now here's
the result of that. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied. Now you're going to eat, but
you'll never be satisfied. Turn to Isaiah 55 with me. Remember
Isaiah is a contemporary of Micah. Remember Isaiah, we call him
the city prophet. He prophesied. He could have
been a member of the royal family of Judah. Some say he was a cousin
or a nephew to King Uzziah. I don't know that for sure, but
he could have been. But he preached in the city of
Jerusalem. And Micah could be called the country prophet. He
was from the country. And he preached in Jerusalem,
but he preached elsewhere, too. But listen to Isaiah. This is
Micah's contemporary. He's preaching to the same people,
Judah and Jerusalem, and he's dealing with the same problem
that Micah's dealing with, except in different language. But listen
to what he says in verse 1 of Isaiah 55. He says, ho, that
means hear, that means listen, everyone that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters, he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Now to buy and eat without money
is just a symbolic way of describing the freeness of salvation by
grace. That's what that is. You don't
have any money to pay God for your salvation. You don't have
any righteousness to recommend you unto God for salvation. And
yet he says, come on anyway. Come on anyway and buy and eat. What have you got to pay with?
Well, what does the scripture say is the redemptive price of
the salvation of God's people? The blood of Christ. You don't
have any money to buy. You don't have any works to recommend.
You don't have any righteousness. You don't have any right in time.
What do you have? I'm a sinner seeking mercy at
the mercy seat through the blood of Christ. And he goes on. He says, yea, come buy wine and
milk. Those are emblems of joy, salvation,
fullness, spiritual health. He said, without money, without
price, don't bring your works. That's what he's saying. I won't
do it. They'll keep you away from God. He says, verse 2, now
listen to this. Now remember what Micah said
over here. He says, you're going to eat, but not be satisfied. You're not going to be fulfilled.
He says in verse 2, wherefore or for what reason do you spend
money for that which is not bread? He says, in your labor for that
which satisfieth not. Why are you trying to work your
way with your religion into God's favor and it will not reach the
mark? It will not reach the, it will
not satisfy. Won't satisfy God? And ultimately
it won't satisfy you. It may for a little while. May
for a little while, but it's like bad food, you know? It may
fill you up, but in the end it's gonna kill you. It's not healthy. And he says, he says, Harken
diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your
soul delight itself in fatness. Now that fatness there is a good
kind of fatness. And he says in verse three, Incline
your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies
of David. You know what the sure mercies
of David is? That's Christ, the mercy seed. who brings all salvation. Go back to Micah 6. Now look
at verse 14. He says, Thou shalt eat, but
not be satisfied. False religion will not satisfy. Works religion, free will religion
will not satisfy. And thy casting down shall be
in the midst of thee from the very center on. It's just not
going to work. He says, And thou shalt take
hold, but shalt not deliver. You see, you'll grab for salvation,
but there'll be no deliverance. And that which thou deliverest
will I give up to the sword. Death will be the end. That's
why we need Christ, who came under the sword of God's justice
for us. Verse 15, Thou shalt sow, but
thou shalt not reap. Now, the Bible says, what you
sow, so shall you reap. That's not what this is talking
about, though. That's talking about this. It's saying you're
going to sow what you think is good seed, and you're going to
expect to get a good crop, but it's not going to happen. If
you sow works, what are you going to reap? Death. Hell. That's why I said, let's sow
grace. You see what I'm saying? You sow grace, what are you gonna
reap? Grace. He says, thou shalt tread the
olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil. Be like dead olives,
no oil. No oil, no balm, no healing,
no joy, no soothing. He says, and sweet wine, but
shalt not drink wine. You think you're going to be
joyous, but it won't end. Because, see, that's religion
there without Christ. That's religion there without
grace. That's religion without truth.
That's religion without heart. Now, in verse 16, he does something
that would not be accepted, acceptable
practice in a lot of religious organizations today. He compares
them with someone they do not want to be compared with. It's
kind of like Isaiah. He did that over in Isaiah 1.
He made this statement. And understand who he's talking
to now, Isaiah. He made this statement. He's
talking to Judah. He's talking to Jerusalem now.
The people of the covenant, the people of God, they turned that
truth into false religion, self-righteous religion, and he made this statement
to them. And I want you to think about
it. Try to put yourself in that context and say, well, I'm a
citizen of Jerusalem and I'm doing my dead level best to worship
and pray and all that. And he looks at him and he says,
except the Lord of Sabaoth, That's the lord of host or the lord
of a great army. That's the invincible God that
cannot be defeated. He says, except the Lord of Sabaoth
hath left us a seed, a small remnant, we should be as Sodom
and Gomorrah. Now, could you imagine how those
religious people felt when Isaiah compared them to Sodom and Gomorrah? That's not a chapter in Dale
Carnegie's book, is it? How to Win Friends and Influence
People. That's not going to get you where you want to go if you're
wanting to move up in religion. Oh, it offended them. with the
offense of the cross. Well, that's what Mike is doing
here in verse 16. Now look at it. He says, for
the statues of Omri are kept. Now he's talking to Jerusalem
here and Judah. Who was Omri? He was one of the
wicked, idolatrous kings of the northern kingdom. He says, you're
no better off than Omri. with your idolatry. And all the
works of the house of Ahab." You've heard of King Ahab, haven't
you? He was Omri's son. Ahab was infamously known as
one of the most wicked, idolatrous kings of Israel, the northern
king. You know who he was married to? Her name was Jezebel. He's comparing Judah and Jerusalem
to Omri and Ahab. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
You're using a scale that we don't want to be on, Micah. And
he says, and you walk in their councils, you're doing the same
thing they did, you're listening to them. And he says, that I
should make thee a desolation. That's what he did to the northern
kingdom. And the inhabitants thereof in hissing, what is that?
That's a joke. Make you a desolation, that's
destroy you. Make you in hissing, you're a
joke among the heathen. It's like, you call yourselves
the people of God? What a joke. And then he says,
therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people. What is
that reproach? It's the reproach of sin. It's
the reproach of shame. Now let me conclude with this.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. We're speaking of reproach. There is
a reproach that the true people of God must bear. But it's not
the reproach that Micah's talking about. That's the reproach of
sin. That's the reproach of shame. That's the reproach of desolation.
But there is a reproach that God's people do bear and bear
it honorably and in faith. And it's called the reproach
of Christ. Let me show it to you. Look at Hebrews chapter
13, look at verse 9. He's telling these believers.
He says, be not carried about with diverse or various, strange,
that's foreign doctrines. What he's talking about is various
doctrines, teachings that are foreign to the gospel. When you
hear something that's kind of weird to you, we've heard some
of that stuff in the last few years, haven't we? Stuff that
sounds kind of weird to you. Haven't you? He said, well, don't
listen to that. Those things that are strange
and foreign to the gospel. Here's what he says, for it is
a good thing that the heart be established with grace. That's
what we want to hear. I want to hear things that just
ground my heart in grace. My mind, my affections, the things
of Christ, the things of God. Not with meats. Now, meats here
is an emblematic expression for the whole old covenant. In other
words, it's not with the trappings of religion, the ceremonies,
taste not, touch not, handle not, what I eat, what I don't
eat. You know, there are people who do that. They say, well,
I know I'm saved because I quit this and started that, don't
eat this, do eat that. I've been baptized, I've walked
an aisle, give my, all that stuff. If that's what establishes your
heart and gives you the assurance of salvation that you desire,
then it's not established with grace. But what does establish
our? Christ, looking to Christ, the
author and finisher of our faith. And he says, not with meads which
have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Israel
under the old covenant didn't do them any good. He says in
verse 10, we have an altar. Now, what is our altar? Now,
I want you to think about who is our altar? Our altar is Christ. He's our high priest. He's our
altar. He's our sin offering. He's all
three. That's what a propitiation is.
You've got to have a high priest that's appointed of God and able
and willing to do the work. You've got to have an altar to
set it apart and you've got to have a sacrifice. Christ is all
three. Put them all together, what does
it mean? Equal righteousness in Him. So we have an altar. Now listen, he says, we have
an altar where they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
You see that tabernacle represents that old covenant. That's over
with. That's gone. It's done. It's been abolished
by way of fulfillment. To go back to that is to deny
Christ. You see that? To go back to an
earthly priesthood is to deny Christ, our High Priest. To go
back to the blood of animals is to deny the Lamb of God. To
go back to an earthly altar is to deny our altar, which is Christ. And so those who serve those
earthly things, they don't have any right to be at our altar.
They're denying our altar. Our altar is Christ. And he says
in verse 11, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without
the camp. Now when they took those animals and they sacrificed
them, they burned those bodies outside the camp. They took them
outside the camp and burned those bodies, the leftovers. What's
he doing here? he's showing something look at
verse twelve he says wherefore for this reason jesus also that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood he set us
apart with his own blood he bought us with his own blood he suffered
without the gate outside the camp outside the city he wasn't
holy enough to be in their city in their view so he says in verse
thirteen let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing
his reproach. We bear his reproach. You know
what that reproach is? It's the hatred of the world
when we tell them, those who serve the tabernacle, those who
are trying to work their way into God's face, they have no
right to come to our, to be at our altar, which is Christ. My friend, come to Christ. Come to Christ and leave all
that other stuff behind. You don't need it. You don't
need it. All you need is Him. All you
need is His blood and His righteousness for your entire, complete, eternal,
unchangeable justification before a holy God.